


The Giving Tree

by BenjisCoolTimes



Series: The Weeping Willow [2]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Old Age, mentions of triplets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:07:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10005173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BenjisCoolTimes/pseuds/BenjisCoolTimes
Summary: Ben and Leslie reminisce about their youth when a willow tree in Harvey James Park is cut down.Title taken from a book by Shel Silverstein.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I recommend reading Lovely Lady first. Please enjoy!!!!!

It was one of those quiet nights where everything was eerily still and the wind was absent from the trees. The stars were bright, and so was the moon, but it would've been more appropriate if they weren’t quite so radiant. Leslie’s eyes searched in the darkness, squinting slightly as she walked and then widening when they landed upon what she was looking for. Her heart fell at the sight, and a soft _oh_ dropped from her lips. She held onto Ben’s hand tighter.

“It’s gone…” she whispered, as if saying it out loud would make it not so. “It’s really gone.” 

Ben didn’t say anything for a moment, and she looked up at him, surprised to find a sadness laced within his features as well. Normally she was the one who got emotional over these sorts of things, and Ben would console her sweetly even though he didn’t quite understand, but this time was different. This meant something to him too, and he was just as touched by it as she was. 

“I don’t believe it,” he said at last. He scrubbed a hand down his face and looked disbelievingly in the distance. “I mean, it was getting old but…” 

They finally came to a bench on the outskirts of the park, which they’d come to love in their old age; it was no longer comfortable to sit on the willow tree’s roots, and truthfully, it hadn't been for years, so they settled for this now.

It was the same bench Leslie’d seen Ben sitting on during the days of their breakup, when he couldn't quite find it within himself to sit by the willow tree itself. He told her later how hard it’d been for him to see her with another man here, with someone who wasn't him. She felt like she’d spent an entire lifetime apologizing, not so much in words but rather in actions and expressions of love.  

“I think I fell in love with you here,” she confessed, eyes twinkling. “It was the day you gave me that delicious eclair.” 

“The L- shaped one?” Ben raised his eyebrow amusedly, and she giggled, nodding. “If only I’d known sooner that I could buy your love with sweets…” 

 “You really were so naive,” she teased. “My sweet, naive Benjamin.” 

He chucked and pulled her hand back into his. Leslie watched him trace her tiny fingers with his much larger ones, and she thought back to a time when neither of their hands were so wrinkled. 

She closed her eyes to try and ward off the oncoming tears, but they slipped down her cheeks anyways. Ben reached out to wipe them from her face and kissed her hairline. 

“Please don't cry,” he begged. “Think of the happy moments. Remember our wedding day?” 

She smiled, because how could she ever forget?”

“Yes,” she said. “We came here straight from City Hall, and you carried me to the willow because my heels kept sinking into the grass.”  

She could almost still feel Ben’s arms holding her securely as he walked across the park. She remembered being able too see their reflection in the pond in the pale moonlight as they passed and finding them both laughing and happier than they’d ever been before.

“We were so young then,” he whispered in awe. “When did we get so old?” 

Leslie was silent, figuring that the question was more rhetorical than anything, though, she had to admit that the very same thought had been eating away at her lately too. They both used to be filled with so much energy, but now they were nearing 80, and it was suddenly harder to pack so much into a single day. Leslie’d always suspected that she’d be the type of woman that age seemed to take no toll on, but she was quickly learning otherwise. It scared her.

“Remember when the triplets were little, and we would just chase them around and around the tree?” Ben continued. His eyes sparkled as he reminisced. “We used to have energy.”

“And then a few years later Stephen tried to climb it…” Leslie interluded with a soft smile. That’d been the first of many trips to the emergency room with that boy. Somehow, Sonia and Wesley never seemed to get themselves into as much trouble. 

“Good Lord,” Ben said. “I’d forgotten about that.” 

They sat in silence for a while, but Leslie’s mind was racing. She wondered if Ben too was still thinking back to all the little moments they’d shared right here, by their willow tree. She closed her eyes again, and when she did, she found that she could see everything so clearly in her minds eye. She saw Ben getting down on one knee to propose to her, and then she saw them sitting together under the branches as they planned their wedding. Of course, they might as well have not planned at all, for their marriage was impromptu and sudden. 

Leslie remembered not being able to wait one more day. She had to be married to Ben Wyatt right at that exact moment, and so, for once in her life, she threw planning out the window. 

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Ben was the only one she ever truly let loose around. With him, she didn’t need a stack of idea binders or months spent organizing things; she just needed him by her side, whether that was in marriage or in running for political office or anything else. She smiled as she thought back to their discussion of who would run for governor- the discussion when she’d told him they might as well just flip a coin, because did it really matter? 

Either way, they would’ve been in it together, and that was enough- it always had been. 

“Come on,” she said suddenly, pushing off the bench. “Let’s go take a closer look.” 

She reached under Ben’s arm to help him to his feet, though he always insisted he didn’t need the assistance, but Leslie knew that his arthritis was getting worse. 

They walked the short distance to the place where the willow once stood, and Leslie felt her heart tighten in its absence. It looked so empty here now, and she was almost afraid of all her memories slipping away too. She knew it was foolish, but she couldn't help the thought from crossing her mind. 

“Remember that book we used to read the triplets?” Ben asked as they reached the ground they’d spent so many hours of their lives sitting on. There was nothing but a stump there now. “The Giving Tree?” 

Leslie nodded and leaned into him, more tears coming before she could stop them. If she wasn't mistaken, Ben’s eyes were glazed over too. 

“Sometimes I think that the willow was like our very own giving tree,” he said. “It gave us a place to fall in love- it gave us each other.” 

It was crazy to think that if it hadn’t been for the tree, they likely wouldn't have even met at all. They’d both always adored the tree, and when they were no more than eight years old, they’d come here at the same time, only to find each other. Leslie was grateful for it. 

“I’m going to miss it,” Leslie confessed. The words felt oddly childish- it was tree after all, but it was also so much more than just that. It seemed like her entire life had happened here. This was her whole world. 

“Me too,” Ben said. “But we have each other, and that’s all that really ever mattered anyways.” 

“You’re right.” 

Finally after what felt like an eternity of just standing there together in nostalgia, Ben wrapped his arm around Leslie’s shoulders. “Lovely lady, are you ready?” 

“I am.” She nodded. 

“Goodbye, tree,” Ben whispered. 

“Goodbye, tree.”


End file.
